


Lachesism

by JediMordsith



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Alpha/Omega, F/M, PWP, dubcon, heat - Freeform, or at least a bastardized version of that trope, some D/s dynamics depending on how you look at it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-13 12:07:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18031448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JediMordsith/pseuds/JediMordsith
Summary: “You’re not a Beta.”It wasn’t a question, and part of him instinctively cringed away from being exposed. Another, smaller part was washed in relief that he didn’t have to explain or lie to his friend.“No.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd PWP written as part of the Fic Whining Circle Challenge.  
> All A/B/O dynamics played with fast and loose. You've been warned.

The first time Luke became aware of Mara Jade as a potential mate, he thought she was being kriffed by someone else. His body noticed it first. Reacted first. He’d be dismayed about that, later. No matter how hard he worked to bring it to heel, the Alpha in him never went completely dormant.

So when the tang of another alpha’s pheromones pierced his senses, his feet turned in the direction of the source without consulting his conscious mind for approval. When Mara’s distress hit in the Force, clear and sharp before being hastily smothered, his already quick steps picked up even further. Something possessive roused in his chest, made his blood pound. He cut corners in the pyramid’s stone halls toward the isolated room she’d chosen in a secluded corridor away from the other students.

The tang got stronger, filling his nose and coating his tongue like the bitter patina of jiqui fruit. Probing with the Force, he found Mara’s muffled anger and frustration again and his right hand dropped to the hilt of the lightsaber at his belt. He didn’t stop to consider the improbability of anyone on the Academy’s tiny campus trying to coerce anything from Mara Jade, of all people. Didn’t register the impossibility of there suddenly being another Alpha – he’d have _known_ , he always knew.

There was nothing but biological impulse driving him forward when he Forced her door and stalked in, ready for a fight – only to find, much to his muddled mind’s confusion, that she was alone.  

His first jumbled thought as he took in her crouched form was of a cornered animal, jumpy and prepared to bolt. In his heightened arousal, he seemed to feel the weight of her eyes as they swept over his face, hear the movement of her blood as it drained from her flushed cheeks, share the tension of her hands as she twisted her fingers in the towel she was pressing against the floor.

Fragments of splintered glass glittered in the fading sunlight that streamed through her room’s slit of a window. Beside her, a small plasteel case lay open. Its molded foam tray cradled a glass-bodied syringe, an empty hollow beside it suggesting its match was what lay shattered under the towel.

“It’s all right.” Mara’s voice was low, cautious, like he was the animal poised to attack.

Luke took a deep breath, then regretted it when the tang of another alpha clogged his senses. This close, though, he got the disorienting awareness that it was… wrong, somehow. That was jarring enough to give his brain the chance it needed to reassert control. Pulling on the Force, he pushed himself into familiar patterns, working the rush of hormones out of his system, clearing his head.

Mara stayed where she was, almost perfectly still, until he let out a slow, steady breath and rolled his shoulders.

“I shouldn’t have barged in,” he said, dragging his unwilling hand from the hilt of his saber, sliding both hands a little away from his sides, palms down and out in a conciliatory gesture he only half understood but somehow knew was necessary. “I felt -.”

What? How was he going to explain without -?

“You’re not a Beta.”

It wasn’t a question, and part of him instinctively cringed away from being exposed. Another, smaller part was washed in relief that he didn’t have to explain or lie to his friend.

“No.”  

“Shavit.” Mara’s eyes dropped to the towel in her hands. “I’ll wash everything,” she told him, shoving the towel forward, swirling it around to sop up the last of the liquid. “Use a neutralizer.”

“It’s not a problem,” he reassured, edginess of her discomfort making something inside him twist. Under control now, he strode across to the foot of her bed and grabbed a second towel. “No one else here will be disturbed by it.”  

There weren’t any other True Alphas in the tiny, experimental cohort of his first apprentices. No Omegas, either, though that was only to be expected. While plenty of Betas had Alpha or Omega leanings, it was becoming increasingly rare to find beings who expressed as True on either end of the spectrum.

Keeping his inner instincts under tight grip, he crouched beside her, carefully pushing shards of glass into a pile. Mara curled forward, gathering her towel into a ball. This close, he was startlingly aware of the way her long eyelashes brushed against her cheeks when she blinked, the line of her jaw as it clenched, the ripple of muscle at her shoulders and biceps as she bunched the towel. He had the sudden urge to nose at her throat, to slide his tongue along the delicate curve where met her shoulder.

Mara pushed to her feet, striding quickly away, and Luke blinked, chastising himself. He clearly hadn’t rebalanced his body as well as he’d thought.    

“What is this?” he asked, dropping his eyes back to the floor as he finished mopping up the mess and pushed his body back into another Force-directed cleansing cycle.

“Medication,” she bit out, defensively.

Luke folded the towel, trapping the shards inside its folds and rose smoothly. Mara had her arms crossed over her chest when he turned, tension rippling off of her. Luke felt his own shoulders tighten and struggled against the unwarranted concern and protectiveness that bit at him as he dumped the towel in the same bin in which she’d dropped hers.

Irritation itched under his skin. What was wrong with him? She was his friend and his student. It was fine to be concerned for her health, but clearly she had everything under control. It wasn’t even that uncommon for female Betas with Alpha leanings to supplement their hormones, to keep them steady and balanced. Half the women he’d flown with in the Rebellion had been on them, preferring to avoid to unpleasant bodily effects of natural pseudo-alpha hormonal cycles.

“I didn’t mean to intrude,” he said, gently.

“It’s not your fault,” she said automatically, meeting his eyes evenly. “True Alphas can’t control their responses.”

“I can,” he corrected. “Not entirely,” he admitted, at her skeptical look. “But mostly. With the Force.” He frowned as an unwelcome thought occurred. “I know this isn’t really appropriate to ask, but were you on this medication at Wayland?”

“No.” The answer was short and Luke felt Mara’s already impenetrable shields tighten another notch. “Talon’s med droids mix them for me. Does it matter?”

A specialty blend. That was rare. Luke’s ugly suspicion intensified, even as he felt a wash of gratitude that she had Talon and his resources to get her what she needed.

“There is a possibility,” he admitted softly, “that your medication is part of why you’ve struggled with your lessons.”

Mara’s expression went blank. It was impossible to pick up anything past her airtight shields, but it was easy to imagine she was doing the same math he was.

“It alters natural bodily function,” she said, after a moment, her voice monotone. “Interferes with connection to the Force. Like having too many prosthetics.”

He didn’t want to say it. Wanted to have comfort to offer, solutions. But Mara would want neither. Only the truth.

“Most of whatever research there was on it was destroyed, but what I’ve found – research and experience – points that way.” Guessing at her next question, because it was the only logical thing to ask, he added, “I’ve never had to take them. I -,” he hesitated. “I found a memory a few years ago of Ben Kenobi setting a muting pattern in my head when I was young. Around the time I presented. Teaching me to run it perpetually at a mostly subconscious level, then blotting out the memory.”  

“Low-level mind trick,” Mara murmured, her eyes going distant.

“I’d offer to show you,” he shook his head apologetically. “But it doesn’t balance anything. Just masks it.”

Mara nodded, her eyes darkening to a color that reminded him of the underside of the deep, secluding brush he’d used for cover on Endor. “If you’ll excuse me,” she said, her voice lifting from its monotone, “I’d like to be alone now.

Luke knew that politely formal tone intimately. He’d watched, heart aching, countless times as Leia erected the same protective shell when the reopening of old wounds left her brittle and bleeding inside.

“Take as much time as you need.”

-  -

The next morning, Luke watched Corran set out alone for the morning run he usually took with Mara. Grief curled in the pit of his stomach, acknowledging what some part of him already knew.

By afternoon meditation, her brightening presence was a steady distraction. She’d skipped all of the day’s lessons and meals, secluding herself in one of the old watchtowers. He couldn’t imagine how the others – even unusually strong Kyp and nature-attuned Streen – were failing to notice how her presence dropped off then flared in strengthening cycles like a flashing signal beacon, demanding his attention.

The beacon flared one last time as he stepped into the airy room they’d designated a dining hall, streaking along his nerves like a faraway cry of anguished rage. Then it began to bleed, draining away from his awareness until, by the time he carried his dishes to the cleaning unit, she had all but disappeared into the flickering candle flame in the Force that she’d been when she arrived on planet to train. Luke waited until the other students dispersed to enjoy some well-deserved leisure time, then turned his steps toward her room.

He felt her subdued acknowledgment as he approached, and heard the door open when he was still several rooms away. The meager evidence that she’d been there had been wiped clean, her few belongings stowed in the duffle she was fastening shut when he stopped in the door. For the space of a few breaths, Luke didn’t speak. Simply gave himself space to fully accept the impending loss, to choose grace for them both. He would respect her decision, set their parting as well as it was possible to do so, knowing the harsh choice she’d been forced into.

“You’re always welcome here, Mara.”

Hefting the bag from the bed, she turned to face him, her face drawn but her back straight. “I loathe wasting my time, Skywalker. And I won’t do you the insult of wasting yours.”

“You don’t have to come as a student.” He hovered in the doorway, uncertain why this felt so terribly important but unable to let it go. “We’re friends,” he tried again, his voice low, almost cajoling. “I don’t want to lose that because this -,” he gestured, as if to encompass the whole of the Academy, the grand and fragile experiment it all was, “wasn’t what was best for you.”

Her fingers wrapped around the shoulder strap of her bag, strong and slender and he resisted the unreasonable urge to reach for them, lace his own through them. Mara didn’t need his comfort, he reminded himself sternly. She was a grown woman, strong as durasteel and sharp as a mullinine blade.

“I told Talon I’m no good at meditation,” she said, her gaze seeking out his. “Left a message for Corran that Karrde needed me back sooner than expected. He’ll tell the others, I’m sure.” She paused. “I won’t tell anyone. About you.”

It was the closest thing to a request she’d bring herself to make, he knew. “Your decisions and words are your own, Mara. No one will hear any differently from me.”  

For just a moment, gratitude, relief, and regret blossomed in the silence between them. Then Mara squared her shoulders. “Walk me to my ship, Jedi.”

They walked in silence, nothing left to say that was worth disturbing the mutual disappointment and understanding between them. At the hangar, she let him help prep the Headhunter for takeoff. When there was nothing else but to close the ship and take off, he stopped her before she sealed the ship with a hand on her arm.

“Remember what I said.” He squeezed her arm gently. “Look me up next time we’re in the same system. I’ll buy you a caff.”

Something he couldn’t identify touched her eyes just for a second before it was gone again. “I’ll think about it. In the meantime, stay out of trouble, will you?”

A small smile played at his lips. “I’ll think about it.”

She shook her head, a familiar exasperated look stealing over her face, her mouth pursing to squash the hint of a smile that threatened. “See you around, Skywalker.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Only there was nowhere for either of them to go, now. Not until their evac arrived. And Mara’s unmodified, unmedicated body was blaring the truth she’d worked so hard for so long to hide. She wasn’t an Alpha-leaning Beta on balancers. She wasn’t a Beta at all. 
> 
> Mara Jade was an Omega and she was going into heat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo... this is like Harlequin grade stuff, guys. I'd apologize for my ID or whatever ridonculousness it is in my brain churning this out, but I have a no apologies policy. So you've been warned - rot your brain at your own risk. : p

“You c-can’t help yourself, c-can you?”

Luke didn’t look down as Mara huffed behind him, his attention focused on the slippery tektite crag beneath his fingers, the cold rain pelting at his face and soaking through his ripped tunic.

“C-can’t stay out of t-trouble. Even if you w-wanted to.”

He tried not to think about the way her teeth chattered violently through the words. About the fact that she couldn’t grip the Force with the same surety he did to keep numbing fingers securely latched on the cliff face they were free climbing. Just a little further, that was all they needed.

“I think it’s genetic,” he managed, pulling the Force a little deeper, raising his internal temperature another few degrees to keep his own teeth from chattering. “Han says – ow.” He managed just in time to dig his fingers into the sting of the sharp ledge he’d gripped, instead of jerking it away and probably falling to his death. “- Leia’s the same way.”

“’S a – g-good thing – there’s only t-two of you.”

“Han says that, too.” With a grunt, Luke hoisted himself up, hooked his elbows on the ledge and shoved, rolling his body up onto the platform of jutting rock. With the half-empty pack on his back the move was ungainly, but it worked and that was all that mattered. Shoving the rucksack off his shoulders, he leaned over, extending a hand down toward Mara. “Here.”

She squinted up against the rain and lifted her right hand trustingly, the grit from their palms scraping each other’s skin as they clasped one another’s wrists. Luke sucked in a breath as he hauled her up, his palm scalding when it pressed against her skin.  She was burning up.

He’d known something was wrong when they’d escaped their “hosts” – she was shielding hard, which she hadn’t been when they’d arrived on this Force forsaken planet for what they’d been promised would be a simple diplomatic mission. She’d been flushed, too. Much more than she should have been, even under the circumstances.

There’d been no visible injuries, though, and she’d insisted she was fine, so getting distance had had to be paramount. Twice while they had been climbing her shields had slipped, a sudden burst of the chaos behind them battering his senses and taking his breath away before she got her control back, locking it away again. Both times he’d set his jaw and kept going in silence because there hadn’t been a choice.

Now concern spiked again. Had they done something to her in the brief time they’d been apart? Had she caught some local illness her body couldn’t properly defend against?

Mara clambered up, immediately pushing away from his hold and out of a kneeling position to sit with her head folded over bent knees. She never knelt if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. He’d learned that in the two years since she’d left the Academy. The dozen missions they’d found themselves on together in that time hadn’t been long individually, but cumulatively they’d provided plenty of unexpected opportunities to learn little details about one another. She never talked about it and he never asked, but he knew she hated being on her knees. Just like he knew she liked high collared tunics because she was self-conscious about the unusual scarring at the back of her neck, and that she hated to be without the tiny vial of the faint, delicate perfume she furtively dabbed behind her ears and at her wrists every day.

“Stay here.”

Without waiting for answer, Luke moved the pack to beside her and pushed to his feet. He stretched out with his senses as he approached the mouth of the cave they’d caught a glimpse of from far below. He didn’t feel any life inside, but kept a hand near his lightsaber just in case as he stepped cautiously inside.

A moment later, he was back out in the rain grabbing the pack with one hand and reaching for Mara with the other. “It’s all clear. Let’s get you -.”

She jolted and scrambled back wildly before seeming to catch herself.

Worry knotted in Luke’s gut. “Mara?”

“’M fine.”

She didn’t sound fine at all. She pressed a hand over her eyes, then lifted the other, scrubbing at her face before rolling stiffly to her feet. “G-get inside,” she managed, staggering past him.

“Go straight back,” he instructed, following her inside.

The cave wasn’t large, but it was tall enough to stand in and enclosed on three sides. A jut of stone at the left side of the entrance created something of a wind break, leaving the inside cool but welcomingly insulated from the gusting torrents of rain pummeling the mountain.

Just before the back wall, however, was unexpected treasure. A hole near the ceiling trickled fresh water in a steady runnel into a series of pools of different depths. An almost invisible seam on the opposite wall allowed water to escape at an almost equal rate, preventing the cave from flooding. He’d checked the little alcove between behind the pools where they formed a bunk-sized nook against the back wall and found it thankfully clear and dry, if not immediately useful in any recognizable way.  

Mara made it to the pools, and sagged against the middle one, bracing her elbows on the uneven rim as she scrubbed her hands free of grime and splashed her face. Then, turning back to face him, she slid down to the floor, her back against the base of the pools, wrapping her arms around herself protectively as she sank.

“Are t-there stims? In the pack?”

“No.” Luke found his feet and strode over to her. Setting the pack down, he crouched beside her. He could almost feel the heat crackling off of her, in spite of the violent shivers wracking her body. There was something else, too – something he couldn’t put his finger on, but that raised his hackles in a way he distinctly didn’t like. “I wouldn’t let you have any if there were, you know that.”

She grumbled something uncomplimentary, dragging her knees up and dropping her head onto them as if it ached.

Digging in the pack, Luke assessed their paltry array of supplies. “Mara, did they give you something? Expose you to something? Do you know?”

“C-can you p-put me under?”

The muffled question was rough and unexpected and Luke stopped, arm still elbow deep in the pack, swiveling his head to look at her. “A healing trance, you mean?”

“N-no. Just – just out.”

“I could,” he answered, warily. “But not for long. Why? Tell me what’s wrong, Jade.”

“W-we need to g-go. G-give me the p-pack. I c-can -.”

“You’re not doing anything until you get out of those clothes.”

Her head snapped up, eyes huge in her flushed face. Unexpectedly, Luke’s world distorted. He could hear her blood pounding, feel the anxious wash of _oh please no_ that escaped her shields like a spray of ice crystals against his sense. Some detached sliver of his awareness recognized the influx of Alpha hormones for what it was and diligently pulled on the Force in the old, automatic cleansing pattern that would diffuse them.

The rest of him remained fixated on Mara. The way her waterlogged clothing clung to her skin, the beads of water glittering on her hair like diamond dust over rubies and gold. The flutter of her pulse at her throat, the tautness of the bunched muscle at her shoulder. The urge to suck just there – to hear her gasp, feel her breath at his ear when he scraped his teeth against that delicate skin – was enough to shock him back into motion.

Rattled, he bent over the pack, took longer than he should have needed to fish out one of the compressed emergency blankets and a spare tunic – his. They hadn’t been able to snag her pack in their escape.

“You’re soaked through,” he said hurriedly, as words could somehow keep them both grounded. “You’ll catch your death.” He thrust the blanket and tunic at her. “Dry off and put this on. We can figure out next steps when we’re not at risk of catching pneumonia.”

She accepted the items carefully, and Luke quickly turned away, retreating toward the entrance of the cave to strip his own wet things off and dry as best he could with the other blanket.

It shouldn’t have been necessary – they’d seen each other in various states of undress before. Accidental glimpses were unavoidable when you traveled, worked and fought in close quarters regularly. Nor was getting peeled out of various articles of clothing so that scrapes, bruises, and occasionally some more serious injury could be patched up. Now, though, Luke was grateful for the distance.

What was wrong with him? True Alphas didn’t have cycles like the other Types. His body never went out of whack or got random rushes and urges for no reason. But there were no triggers here – nothing that should have set off the deeply embedded biological imperatives that lay dormant within him.

Tugging his pants up his legs, he spared a moment to be grateful he’d learned the technique for controlling body temperature. The cave might have gotten quite uncomfortable without a tunic if he couldn’t, but he’d given Mara his only spare. It wasn’t the best of situations, but they’d come through worse. He just needed to keep his body in line until they could get off planet and get proper med scans.

He doubled down on his cleansing technique as he ruffled the blanket through his hair, then took a deep, centering breath and walked back to Mara. She’d hung her clothes from crags in the walls where they were already dripping small puddles. She’d wrapped herself in the emergency blanket, her bare feet exposed below its reflective surface and his open tunic collar peeking out over the top as he approached.

“I think there was a bio solvent in the tea,” she said preemptively, rummaging in the bag and coming out with the backup comm unit. Irritation twisted her expression and soured her sense. “I should have expected that. Stupid.”  

Luke’s brow furrowed. “I checked with the Force before we drank it. It didn’t ping as dangerous.”

“That’s because bio solvents _aren’t_ ,” she snapped, keying on the device.

“Except when you’re on medication.”

The pieces fell into place and with them chagrined relief. They hadn’t spoken of the balancers she took since that incident at the Academy, and he’d never seen the syringes again. But her Force sense had consistently remained in its same, muted state, which was enough to tell him she’d stuck with it. Balancers were traditionally time-released so users only had to take them once a week or once a month instead of daily. If whatever remained of her dose was being eaten out of her system by a solvent, it was no wonder she felt chaotic and ill. Her body being off might even be what was triggering his.

“We need an extraction,” she demanded, scrolling through the device’s control screens with shaking fingers. “This can’t happen here. I can’t -.” Her eyes darted up at him for the first time since he’d handed her the blanket and tunic and her words abruptly cut off. She gulped for air, her face visibly paling. The next words were tight and laced with distress that pieced his Force sense with urgency. “I _can’t._ ”

“Hey.” Feelings he didn’t dare look at too closely clawed at his chest and Luke dropped to one knee beside her. “It’s all right. It’ll be fine.” Without thinking, he reached out at brushed a lock of damp hair away from her face.

_Shavit._

Her skin was soft and fever-hot beneath his fingertips, and the damp and heat and whatever subliminal signals her body was giving off as it burned through her meds hit him like a kick to the gut. Desire snaked through him, sending a shot of pure lust straight to his brain.

It must have shown, or else her experience of her own body’s disordered state was more intense than he’d given credit for because Mara’s eyes fell shut and her face scrunched in something too close to pain for him to bear.

Hauling his attention back and commanding his body to heel, Luke dropped his hand to her shoulder and nudged her toward the ground. “Let me put you in a healing trance. I don’t know how much it will fix, but it’s worth a try.”

And if it gave him space to get his own control back, he’d take it selfishly and without guilt.

She didn’t resist, balling up on the ground instead, her body vibrating with tension but otherwise tersely still as he adjusted the blanket around her, making sure she was fully covered.

“You’ll try to reach someone? Get us an extraction.”

“I’ll raise someone,” he promised, reaching out with the Force to gently touch her disordered sense. “Rest, Jade.”

She nodded, then slumped as he caught her up in the trance set her body to repeat the pattern, drawing the Force in and restoring order to her system. She stayed there as he worked the comm unit, switching between channels, entering codes, and finally finding a stable, usable signal. By the time he signed off, weary but satisfied, help was coming. It wouldn’t be fast – there were solar storms interfering with travel in the sector, but soon enough that they could get by with their limited supplies.

Carrying the unit back to the pack, which still lay beside Mara’s entranced form, Luke dropped to one knee to stow it away. But he never even got the pack open.

A rich, heady scent – sticky sweet as Vashkan honey – assaulted him, sent him reeling. He gasped, the aroma so thick he could taste it. If the shot of desire he’d felt earlier had been a snake, slithering through him, this was an Anacondan swallowing him whole. Every Alpha cell in his body snapped awake in unison, flooding his system with the demand that he find the source of that delicious, _delectable_ promise of pleasure.

Except that even as he lifted his head, blinking against vision blurred by the rush of heat scorching down every limb, dread was balling icy cold in Luke’s gut. He’d heard it could be like this. Read that Alphas exposed to the right pheromones could all but lose their minds with need – not want, but _need_ -that consumed them until they had no choice but to sate it.

That was why it usually legal to – _no_. He severed the thought ruthlessly, closed his eyes and focused on his breathing. Control.

He’d always understood academically - objectively - that it was theoretically possible for him to find himself in that state. He’d just never worried about it. Betas, even Omega-leaning ones on supplemental hormones, couldn’t produce the strain of pheromones it took to induce that level of mindlessness. And if the likelihood of finding an Omega at all was depressing low, the odds of finding one who hadn’t already been claimed, who wasn’t kept under lock and key or a protective Alpha’s wing were impossibly small.

The odds of being unexpectedly stuck in close quarters with one were incalculably minute.

Only there was nowhere for either of them to go, now. Not until their evac arrived. And Mara’s unmodified, unmedicated body was blaring the truth she’d worked so hard for so long to hide. She wasn’t an Alpha-leaning Beta on balancers. She wasn’t a Beta at all.

Mara Jade was an Omega and she was going into heat.  


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now, smut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder: Un-beta'd, Harlequin grade dubcon.  
> Rot your brain at your own risk.

_This can’t happen here._

With tremendous effort, Luke pushed himself away from Mara. Crawled backward until he could force his body to turn. Every step was a battle – he didn’t _want_ get further away. She was _his_ –.

But she _wasn’t_. She was _an_ Omega, but not _his_ Omega. Claiming her now would be a disaster.

Positioning himself as close to the mouth of the cave as it was possible to be without getting drenched again, Luke clenched his fists and stared into the rain, breathing in its fresh, wild scent in scant hope of clearing his head. As his brain started to de-fog, he scoured it for what he knew about Omegas in heat – _really_ knew, not just the rumors and gossip and warped media portrayals of them. 

The answer, he eventually determined grimly, was _not much_.

Even as an Alpha, he hadn’t considered finding out a priority. Omegas were so rare he’d assumed he’d never find one. That he’d be like Leia, paired with a Beta and content to spend the rest of his life pretending to be the Alpha-leaning Beta everyone thought he was. He hadn’t expected -.

A particularly vile expletive behind him pulled him out of his ruminations and into the awareness that Mara was not only awake, but that her system was evidently completely flushed of her medication. She was brighter in the Force than he remembered her ever being and just turning back to face her was enough to make his body perk up in inconvenient ways.

She was on her feet, a long, enticing stretch of bare leg visible below the hem of his borrowed tunic. Her head snapped in his direction when he stepped toward her.

“Luke -.” She sounded strangled and her shields wobbled.

“You’re an Omega.”

“I have to go.” She darted toward her clothes, grabbed for her still-damp boots. “I can -.”

Go? She couldn’t go. “Mara.”

“I can’t stay,” she shoved one foot in a boot, her face set in determination. “’ll figure something out.”

“You’re not _going_ anywhere.”

That… might have come out significantly more like a growl than he’d intended. Irritation lanced at him and he clamped down harder on his unruly Alpha side. He was a Jedi Master, for Force sake - he _did not_ growl at people – least of all his friends. He could control this. He _would._

“I won’t do this to you.” Mara stuffed her other foot in its boot and straightened, her shoulders squaring fiercely. “You don’t know what it’s like – I _won’t_.”

“Mara.” There, that was better. Calm. Reasonable. Almost. “You’re going into heat. It isn’t safe for you to be out there.” He gestured to the alien world beyond their shelter. “Least of all _alone_.” 

“Have you ever seen an Omega in heat?” she demanded, furiously. “Do have any idea -?”

“Tell me. Tell me what you need.” That… _sounded_ good, but Luke had the distinct impression it hadn’t come from his rational brain. It was not a comforting idea.

“Isolation,” she answered, immediately.

Luke frowned. “That doesn’t sound right.”

“A stasis field,” she continued, wrapping her arms around herself again, the tunic’s hem hitching higher on her toned thighs as she started to pace. “For the panic. And after.”

“Panic?” he repeated, bewildered.

 “I’m not safe. For you. You can hold me down with the Force, but if you slip -.” She dove for the pack, a manic edge to her energy. “I can rig -.”

“No.” Nothing born of that disordered thinking could be good. Ducking forward, Luke snatched the pack from her hands, tossed it away.

“Skywalker!”

She jumped up, starting to scramble after it, but Luke cut her off, planting his body in the way and catching her with a strong grip on her upper arms. _“Stop.”_

To his surprise, she did, a vicious shudder running through her. Something deep in his chest went tender. “I know you don’t want this,” he said, every word slow and deliberate. “But it’s happening, and it will be better for both of us if you let me help.”

“Just get on my knees, face in the dirt and get it over with?” she spat bitterly, lifting her chin to glare at him.

“I would never -.”

“You _will_.” Her shields cracked and the pain and dysphoria behind them nearly made Luke’s knees buckle. “You’ll kriff me until you have nothing left and then you’ll try to rip my soul out through the back of my neck. Because that’s what Alphas _do_. And then you’ll come back to your senses and -.”

The words broke off, but for a moment the space between them filled with the memory of a terrifyingly bottomless emptiness laced with a fire and ice that left him feeling hollowed out and desolate. Habit made Luke reach for the Force to steady himself.

It was a mistake.

If Mara smelled like honey, his accidental brush against her Force sense was like pitching headfirst into a barrel of mead - thick, golden, and intoxicating. Some tiny sliver of his brain scrambled to fight the rush of it – flailed and squawked about pulling back, shielding. He could, still. Probably.

But he didn’t _want_ to Forcibly drag himself out her sense. No, he very much wanted to _drink_ his way out, taking every bit of her into himself, hoarding her for his own like a Hutt jealously guarding stolen gold.

Mara jerked under his hands, a disjointed sound cracking Luke’s absorption and plunging him back into larger awareness. Something had changed – her breathing was faster, her pupils dilated. She was shaking again, vibrating under his palms like a heat shield rattling loose from its moorings.

“Mara, what’s wrong?”

“Dark.” Her gaze was unfocused, and her fingers twitched against his arms when she tried to grip. “I don’t – don’t want to.”

Worried, Luke fisted his control and pressed past her failing shields back into her sense - with intent, this time. In any other situation it would have been a violation – a breach of trust he’d never have considered. But something was wrong, and - Luke’s pulse kicked up when he traced Mara’s attention to the edges of herself. Her mental boundaries warped as he watched and she made another broken sound as a splash of her honey-mead sense sloshed through the unstable boundary, spilling out into the dark chasms that yawned beyond.

“You can see it.” Mara’s voice was cracked, somehow both echo-y with distance and inside him all at once. “The dark. Luke, I don’t want to -.”

“Mara -.”

Luke cupped her cheek with one hand, dipped his head, trying to catch her eye – make her _see_ him. He inhaled, opening his mouth to reassure her – and got a lungful of potent pheromones as her stressed body gave a silent scream for help.

Conscious thought blanked.

His Omega was in pain. The thought lodged in his brain, short-circuiting everything else. _She hurts. Make it stop._

Mara whimpered, and he felt the sound wholly inside him, now – or was he inside her? It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he was suddenly absolutely sure that this place where their bodies and senses met was safe, and his Omega needed safe. He needed to keep her here. Keep her away from the dark edges.

“Look at me. Not the dark.” Luke dropped his hands to Mara’s hips, flattening his palms against the fabric of tunic and stroking down, tracing the curve of her until he found skin.

“Luke – don’t...”

He leaned into her, burrowing his nose into the hollow of her throat, breathing her in as his fingers closed on the bottom of the fabric. “I can take care of you.” He licked up the column of her neck, enjoying her gasp as he mouthed hot kisses beneath her ear. “A good Alpha takes care of his mate.”

Mara sucked in a breath, her hips rocking forward into his, her arms clutching around his neck even as she hunched her shoulders, her damp hair brushing his cheek as she shied away from his mouth.  

“What- whatever you’re expecting, it – it’s not that.”

Slowly, incredibly, agonizingly slowly, Luke started stroking his hands up. Mara trembled violently, her pulse fluttering under his lips as his fingertips burned a path up her ribs, the tunic folding over his wrists as he exposed her skin one fluid inch at a time.

“It’s not – clean. Not… nice. Luke -.”

He heard her. Understood the half-coherent warning that babbled off her tongue. But it wasn’t nearly as important as the way her back arched, the discoveries of tiny imperfections his hyper-aware fingers were making as they mapped her body from hip to collarbone. Far less important than the way her sense had started to concentrate, pooling around the places where he touched her, far away from those dark chasms that caused her grief and pain.

Mara resisted when he nudged her arms up and he rumbled amusement. Dropping his head, he laved the flat of his tongue over a soft, rosy nipple. Startled, she jolted, losing her balance just long enough for him to yank the tunic over her head and throw it away. Dropping his hand back to her hips, he walked her backward, hands and body guiding her unsteady steps.

“I didn’t -.”

Her eyes were focused, now, wide and liquid and bright against the pink tinging her cheeks. She licked her lips, trying for more words, but Luke cut off the attempt, unable to resist tasting her any longer. He angled his head, kept the press of his mouth soft on hers as she stiffened. He waited out the confusion and conflicting desires he could feel clashing within her, his tongue tracing her lips with patient certainty until she reluctantly opened for him, accepting his teasing tongue with a conflicted sigh.

Luke rewarded that compliance by stroking his hands up from her hips to cup her breasts. He rubbed his thumbs across her pearling nipples as he shifted his weight and wedged a thigh between hers. Mara moaned against the kiss, rocked her hips, a frisson of dismay streaking through her as she compulsively sought friction.

Isolation his ass. The last thing his Omega needed was to be locked away to face the tumult in her body alone. Or, worse, bent over and kriffed like an object while she was off balance and fragile. No. What she needed was an Alpha with a firm hand to ground her.

Luke smiled against the kiss, licked at Mara’s sweet tongue one more time. Then he broke the kiss to trail his mouth down across her jaw, down her throat. He licked across her collarbone, resisting the urge to bite – this wasn’t the time for that. Instead, he savored her shaky intake of breath when he closed his mouth over the tip of her left breast.

“L-Luke -.”

“Mmm.”

Leaving his left hand confidently kneading her right breast, he trailed his right down over her stomach. Instinctively, she tried to squeeze her legs shut. The press of her strong thighs around his made Luke’s already stiff cock take notice and it strained against his pants. He acknowledged then ignored it, concentrated instead on slipping his hand between his thigh and the apex of hers. Mara made a choked sound when he fingered her soft, damp folds, her body clenching as she tried to pull away and found unyielding rock at her back.

“Shhh,” he soothed, angling his body so that she could press her face into his shoulder.

She clung, her arms around his neck, the fragrance of the wild rain that lingered in her hair mixing with the rich sweetness of an Omega in heat that hung around her like a cloud of perfume. Luke drew the combination into his lungs in long, satisfied breaths, holding it in mouth and nose the way he’d seen Lando savor the smoke of the most expensive cigars.

The effect was drugging, everything but Mara falling away as he worked a single finger inside her. She whined, clenching around it.

“You like that.” He murmured it in her ear, felt her burrow more tightly against him, confusion and mortification and desperate _want_ swirling through her sense – through him, where he held her sense protected inside his own.

“I don’t want to.” The words were hoarse and strained, muted against his skin. “But – but I need -.”

“You need this.”

Luke pushed another finger inside her. She wasn’t as wet as he’d have liked, despite the desire pouring off of her, the sheen of sweat glistening on her body. It might have just been where she was in her heat cycle – he didn’t know. He should. He’d find out. Luke nuzzled a kiss against her temple, protectiveness balling in his chest. He’d find out. Learn to take care of her perfectly.

Mara gave a cry, squirming and tossing her head against him. He pressed her a little tighter against the rock.

_“Please.”_

Luke pulled both fingers out of her, ignoring her yelp of protest, and thrust them in his mouth. The taste of her was concentrated as his sucked it off, purposely coated his fingers with saliva. It went to his head like a sugar rush, making his movements momentarily clumsy as he pushed his slicked fingers back inside her.

“Ohhh -.”

He set a quick pace, pumping his fingers in and out of her, making her squirm and rock until her internal chaos caught up and fell into place with his rhythm, her hips jerking to meet every thrust. She pulled his fingers deep, mewling incoherently as her body bore down on every thrust as if she could trap his touch inside her, keep it.

More importantly, as her body tightened around his thrusting fingers, her sense balled tight within their shared space, as well. As her cries escalated, her sense cohered, pulling away from the dangerous dark edges that had threatened and concentrating in her center. It was still choppy, rough with the turmoil of heat, but the panic and pain were gone, replaced by consuming, star-bright pleasure.

“That’s it,” he murmured into her hair. “Come for me, Sweetheart. Just a little more. I have you.”

She curled into him as she mindlessly let go, her release flattening them both. Luke groped past her sagging body with his left hand, palm curling over the rim of the pool at her back as he gulped for air, riding out the cascading pleasure. He swallowed a chuckle as Mara slumped bonelessly, grateful he had her securely bracketed against him. Carefully, he withdrew his fingers, earning a soft disgruntled sound from his pleasure-drunk Omega.

He did chuckle, then. “You can have more later,” he told her, affection bubbling up as he pressed a quick, light kiss to her lips. “But first, rest.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to his ignorance, the first few hours of their morning had rivaled the third level of Corellian hell in torment and the sheer stark sense of helplessness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was not supposed to be this long. *shrugs helplessly*

He was going to need to buy a ship.

Luke was vaguely aware of another low, lustful moan escaping his lips, of his hips shifting as Mara slid her tongue along the underside of his half-hard cock. Her hair was soft under his fingers, and he stroked it gently, careful not to catch any of the tangles with his fingers. Her body was sensitive in odd ways right now, and a careless yank would hurt far more than it should. He wouldn’t let that happen.

He flexed his other hand where it was tucked between her legs, felt her inner muscles clamp down on the two fingers he had inside her. Smiling indulgently, he drifted back to his musings, content to let his body rest easily against the wall, head back and eyes closed, the distinctive metallic smoothness of the emergency blankets under his legs, Mara’s warm weight curled over his lap, her sense placid and calm for the moment.

He could find something like the _Hunter’s Luck_ , maybe. That had a recessed bed alcove in the captain’s cabin that would do, and Mara liked the way it handled. The alcove would be essential.  Luke had discovered the hard way – as it seemed he was destined to learn everything about his Omega and her heat – that rumors of “nesting” proclivities among Alphas and Omegas were, in fact, grounded in reality.

Thanks to his ignorance, the first few hours of their morning had rivaled the third level of Corellian hell in torment and the sheer stark sense of helplessness. Mara had slept fitfully and woken too early, restless and on edge. Some form of presumably hormone-induced aphasia had made coherent communication impossible. She’d tried – fiercely – and her increasing frustration and anxiety when neither her body nor the Force would be bent to her will had been agonizing to watch. He’d tried not to think about how many Omegas across the galaxy had legally been raped because they were physically incapable of clearly saying _no_ in this stage of heat.

Things had only gotten worse when he tried to coax some food into her. By rights, she should have been ravenous. Despite his best efforts, though, she’d been unwilling or unable to eat so much as a bite. She’d shied away from his touch, too, both physically and in the Force, and scratched fretfully at her skin everywhere it was covered by his tunic before angrily discarding it altogether.

He hadn’t minded the view, but the jumbled signals coming off her distressed body had made his own feel disordered and achy. Worse was the glaring reality that his Omega needed something. Something he wasn’t providing and couldn’t identify. He was failing her and she was suffering for it. 

Finally, he’d stepped away from her entirely, retreating to the entrance of the cave to meditate. It felt like a betrayal, turning his back to her. He told himself it was a strategic step back – that maybe if he could use the Force to sort his own clouded mind he’d be better able to see how to help her. Turning his face to the sun that hung low in the sullen in the grey-green sky, he’d struggled to subdue his Alpha nature and push himself into the flow of the Force.

He eventually found the clarity he’d been seeking, and promptly wished he hadn’t.

His Jedi mind, he’d found, was far less concerned with Mara’s current state than with reminding him stridently that, for the liberties he’d taken the night before, _she wasn’t HIS Omega._ Yes, she was suffering. But if he attempted to “help” again as he had last night, she might very well suffer more. If not now, then when her heat was over and they had to come to terms with the irrevocable changes between them.

The thought was so loathsome it had pushed him abruptly out of meditation. He’d rolled to his feet, perverse anger building in his chest. Or was it guilt? He hadn’t asked to be an Alpha any more than Mara had wished to be an Omega. But they were what they were and she was his _friend_. He couldn’t just sit and watch her - _feel_ her – suffer when it was in his capacity to help. Or would be, if he understood how.

Halfway into the cave, he’d stopped. Mara was nowhere to be seen. Their makeshift bedroll had been gone, too. He had done a full circle, mystified. He could _feel_ her – she hadn’t gone, couldn’t have, but -. A rustle had had him turning again, striding toward the cascading pools. He veered right, toward the lowest end of the pools, and stopped.

Mara’s eyes had darted up, dark and startled and then her shoulders had hunched in a way that made his chest ache. She’d dragged their two blankets into the dry, empty nook between the pools and the back wall, bunching them around her into a sort of…well, the only word that came to mind was _nest_. She had stuffed herself as far back into the bunk-sized space as it was possible to be, her knees drawn up… and one hand between her legs. She jerked it away when she realized he’d seen, twisting her fingers in the blanket beside her, her face scrunched with all the things she still couldn’t give voice to. Her sense had remained chaotic, but this time mortification and self-loathing cut cleanly through the rest of the mess.

“Oh, Sweetheart.”

With intentionally measured movements, Luke had stepped over the lowest pool and into her nest. Somehow, in the step, he’d shed his awareness of anything but her. The soles of his bare feet sank into the artificially smooth surface of the synthfabric lining the floor in synchronicity with his sense sinking into hers. There’d been a muzzy, fleeting awareness that her scent had changed, too.

Rubbing his thumb over her inner thigh, now, Luke could guess that she’d shifted from one phase of her cycle into the next.

In that moment, though, he’d understood only that he had to be careful. She’d watched him, her body locked in tension and shame. There were minefields there he knew he didn’t fully understand. Triggering them would hurt them both, and he wasn’t sure he’d survive seeing his Omega devastated at his hands. 

So he’d gone immediately to his knees, knowing instinctively it was better not to tower over her. He’d crawled right up next to her, not quite touching but close enough to feel the heat of her, breathe in the bittersweetness of her unhappy body. Kept his voice low, purposely pitched halfway between a croon and a command.

“Let me help.”

Her shoulders had hunched further and she’d shut her eyes as he lifted a hand, rested it lightly on her knee. Gently, he’d glided his fingers down the inside of her thigh. There would be no surprises – she’d know every intent before he made each touch real. Have a chance to react – to warn him away however she could before he transgressed on untenable ground.

She’d made a garbled sound – almost words, but not close enough to understand. His lungs had squeezed, feeling her struggle inside him again.

“Spread your feet for me, Sweetheart.”

She’d inched them apart, and he’d patiently traced his fingertips up and down her thigh, waiting while she worked herself open for him, one hard-won step at a time. When she’d widened her stance enough, he moved over, positioning himself between her parted knees and leaned down, dropping a light kiss to her knee. She’d groaned, her head falling back, her knees parting a little further.

Pleased, Luke had cupped his right hand around the outside of her bare thigh and slid it down to the crease of her hip. His left hand braced her right knee as he began to kiss his way down. He took his time, keeping a steady, unhurried pace, all his senses tuned to her cues. She softened slowly, the progressively more distant look in her eyes and the fogginess of her sense suggesting she wasn’t entirely with him, lost in the feel of his touch and her body’s automatic responses to it.

That was all right. The bitterness of her scent was fading, which told him he was on the right track to making her feel better overall, and that was the goal. When he reached his goal, Luke kissed Mara’s folds very lightly, experimentally. She moaned – and then his eyes were rolling into the back of his head as her body responded with a flush of sweetness. He gave no thought to the way his body twisted, his legs kicking out so he could lay on his stomach, or the way his hands moved to cup beneath her thighs. There was only the honeyed wet heat of her against his tongue, the way her hips moved as he licked and sucked, feasting on her.

The sounds she made had his blood pounding, his erection painful where it was trapped under his body, but he made himself wait. Focused on holding her bucking hips in place as he took her with lips, teeth, and tongue, learning what she liked until she wrenched with a shriek, her orgasm knocking him breathless. Luke turned his head, nipped at her thigh, smearing her slick across her skin. Nipping again, he was struck with an undeniable need to smear _himself_ on her. To mark her - keep her.

Pushing up, he hooked an arm around her waist, hauled her down, sideways, flat on her back. She gasped at the suddenness of it, the disorientation of the movement, but he didn’t pause. He shoved furiously at his pants, kicked them off, and then his hands were catching under her knees, pressing them out as he pushed into her.

Mara yelped, but it wasn’t pain and he paid it no heed. She was so wet. Hot and wet and _his_. His body throbbed with the need to have her, with the heat and the smell and the taste and the of the feel of her. _Mine_ he thought, thrusting in, over and over. _My Omega. My Mara. Mine._

It was too much, too intense – he didn’t fight it when his release came too soon. As every muscle clenched, he pulled out, spilling over her stomach and thighs as he panted through the white crash of pleasure that left him dizzy and languid with pure, almost bestial satisfaction.

Neither of them had been particularly coherent for a while after that. Luke had fuzzy memories of rolling to his side, gathering Mara against him. Eventually, she’d squirmed and he’d let go, only becoming aware of how much she’d come back to herself when she’d pushed and pulled at him. He’d happily let her adjust him however she saw fit… and _that_ had led directly to _this._ A much more stable Mara Jade curled in the safety of her Alpha’s lap in their improvised nest, his cock and his fingers inside chasing away the feeling of emptiness that he’d worked out seemed to come with this phase of heat.

And the need to buy a ship. Because if he got a ship – one with a nice alcove bed he could turn into a soft, safe nest – he could see Mara safely through future heats. Give her the space and privacy she needed, physically and in the Force, to work through the cycle. She could live as she was – an Omega – instead of pretending to be what she wasn’t. Who would challenge a Jedi Master’s claim to her? It didn’t matter – he’d kill anyone who tried. And if she didn’t have to take medications to hide her nature, she’d have full access to the Force. She could reclaim her birthright as a Force user.

Luke’s fingers snagged on a tangle in Mara’s hair and he stopped before he hurt her. Disentangling them was something of an undertaking, given that she clamped her thighs down on his other hand, refusing to release it to help in the effort. He smiled down at her warning glare, delighted by the picture she painted. Fierce eyes, wild hair, reddened lips wrapped greedily around his not insubstantial cock, her curves on display across his lap. As best he could with one hand, he gathered her hair, twisting it back. He would stroke skin instead – avoid causing her accidental discomfort.   

As his hand pulled back, tucking her hair to the side, the faint silvery scarring at the back of her neck caught his eye. Sitting there, with Mara in his lap, his Alpha side dominant and alert, they looked entirely different than he remembered. Comprehension hit him like a Force pike to the gut.

_How many Omegas legally been raped because they were physically incapable of clearly saying no?_

_You’ll kriff me until you have nothing left and then try to rip my soul out through my throat. It’s what Alphas do._

“Mara.” His voice was a true growl now, deep and low in his chest. “How many times have you been claimed?”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guess who gets claimed?

The precipitous freefall of Mara’s sense was so steep and so fast that it made Luke’s head spin. She lurched back, a choked, furious noise escaping as she scrambled backwards, off his lap.

“Mara -.”  Luke grabbed for her. She twisted and kicked, her heel catching him in the shoulder and driving him back. He hissed as his bare back scraped against the rock wall.

 “No!” She was unsteady on her feet, stumbling as much as climbing as she scrabbled out of the nook.

“Mara!” Flinging himself after her, Luke chased her as she darted through the cave, his heart pounding. She couldn’t go – it wasn’t safe. It wasn’t right – none of this was right.

 _This is your fault._ His chest burned, his body mirroring her pain magnified by his own guilt and grief. _Your Omega hurts and it’s your fault._

She skidded to a halt at the very edge of the stone ledge, wavered there, the orange glow of the setting sun creating a fiery halo around her silhouette.

“Mara.” Luke stopped at the mouth of the cave, hands out, heart pounding. He threaded his power through the Force, ready to snatch her up in an instant if need be. “Sweetheart. Step away from the ledge.”

“Didn’t choose,” she snarled over her shoulder, her anger carving into him, her sense raw with old wounds gouged open.  “Wasn’t – wasn’t kept. Kriffed. Dis-discarded.” Bitterness poured off her, scorching the air and searing his senses, then tinging sour as her shoulders slumped. “Can’t again.”

_Fierfek._

Claiming an Omega formed a biochemical bond at the deepest levels – even he knew that. Breaking it – especially in the aftermath of heat when they were inherently vulnerable… It would have been like losing her mindlink to the Emperor. Over and over and over. The hideous image of Mara, on her knees, screaming into the dirt, blood dripping from her neck down her shoulders while her mind splintered – it curdled his stomach, made his hands fist so hard that darts of fire ran up his arms, across his shoulders.   He wanted to find them, those Alphas who’d done that to her – rend their flesh from their bones. Grind them into dust in recompense for her suffering.

“I would _never_ -.”

“Will.” She cut him off.

It wasn’t an accusation when she said it, just a simple statement of fact and it bled the rage from him into a sick, chilled hollowness.  

He would kriff her. He was a True Alpha and his body already irrevocably recognized her as his. His conscious mind might get a say in _how_ and _when_ , but _if_ was a foregone conclusion.

“Let me keep you.” It was his conscious self that managed to make it a plea, rather than a command. The Alpha in him couldn’t imagine letting her go.

“No good.” Mara half turned, her face shadowed against the glare of the sun. “After evac -.” She waved a hand in a frustrated, futile sort of gesture. “Jedi.” She shook head. “Leashed.”  

Anger welled in him hot and quick, then washed just as quickly to grief. He didn’t know if she meant that _he_ was leashed, as a Jedi, his life not his own to rearrange around the needs of an Omega. Or if she was refusing to be leashed herself, as so many Omegas functionally were, however gilded their chains. This wasn’t the time or the place for this conversation – not when her dysphoric body barely allowed her words. Not when so much hung so precariously between them. Not when he nothing but words and promises to offer her, nothing to balance out her lifetime of experience to the contrary.

Mara sighed, and he wondered how much of that tangled reflection her strengthened connection to the Force had caught. Turning her back to him again, she lowered herself to sit on the ledge, staring at the setting sun. At a loss, Luke turned away, too, back into the cave.

Aimless and upset with little outlet, he occupied himself by washing up somewhat in the cascading pools, the water stinging and cold against his skin. He shook out Mara’s now-dry clothes and folded them and his own into neat stacks. He spared a wry smile for the realization that Mara’s sensitive body eschewing clothing in her heat was directly translating to his doing the same.

Rummaging in the pack, Luke pulled out rations. He made himself eat, despite having no appetite. He was sure Mara wouldn’t want any, but equally sure that she, too, ought to get something in her. When they got off this planet, he was going to find out exactly what Omegas should be eating during heat and buy a case of it.

Breaking the ration bar into small, bite-sizes pieces, he smoothed out the open wrapper so it functioned something like a tray. Then, on impulse, he grabbed his tunic and carried it and the food out to the ledge. Mara didn’t move, save to turn her head when he approached.

He knelt behind her, sliding the rations beside her right hand. “It’s not warm enough to sit like this. Put your arms up.” She pursed her lips at him but complied, and he slid his tunic over her head, tugging it down around her hips. “I know you probably don’t want to eat, but I need you to try for me. Please.”

He lifted a hand, stroked his fingers down her cheek. The emotions between them had driven their bodies out of sync for the first time since she’d woken in heat, and the touch felt disjointed, off. “I want…”

The words, too, were thick and unwieldy on his tongue. The animalistic part of his mind pushed against them, insisting that he didn’t need them – he would claim her. Her body would know that she belonged to him, then, and that would be enough. But it wouldn’t, and part of him knew that, too.

“It isn’t a real choice, I know that,” he stumbled through the thought, trying to mimic the touch of his fingers against her skin with his sense gentle against the edge of hers. There was dark at her edges again, enough to frighten him, and the words spilled out faster.

“But you _can_ choose me, Sweetheart. I won’t – I won’t hurt you.” Air rushed out of his lungs at the horrible thought and he dropped his lips reverently to her shoulder. “I _will_ keep you – not, not on a leash. As a mate. A real one. We can make it work. I want to – all of me wants to.” His next breath was shuddery, painful, but he ground the rest of the words out anyway because he had to. Because she deserved them, because they were true and he’d make them real no matter what else they could not change. “If – if you don’t, choose me… I’ll do what I can. To make it… not… like you’ve had.”

There should have been more, he thought. Something else he could offer. But it was like being at the Academy again, the day she left. Understanding and acceptance and regret blossoming in the space between them… and nothing else left to say or do that could change where they stood. Mara remained still and silent and, finally, Luke dragged himself to his feet and left her be.

      - -

Luke dozed, light and unsatisfyingly, the nook gallingly empty without Mara beside him. Moonlight snuck around the hole overhead where the water trickled in, casting the space in a faint and dappled silver glow that was by turns beautiful and eerie. He wanted to see that light on Mara’s pale skin. He wanted to kriff her until her skin was damp, to lick beads of sweat glistening in that mysterious, ethereal light from her throat, her breasts, as she came for him - came on him, every memory of pain wiped away by his touch.

The rustle of blankets brought him full wakefulness and he rolled over, sitting up as Mara approached, his weight propped on one hand. Something was different – _she_ was different. The cloud of perfumed honey scent around her rolled over him, golden and hot like the first kiss of Tatooine’s suns. Everything but _her_ and _now_ burned away again, his cock going fully hard in the time it took him to sit up.

She watched him, eyes glittering with a familiar, determined look as she sank to the ground beside him, cross-legged and solemn, her knees a scant inch from his hip and thigh. When she spoke, the words were low, paced and very, very intentional.

“Did… you… mean… it?” The moonlight sculpted strange shadows on her face, made her eyes flicker from emerald to pale jade and back again. “Keep… me?”

“Yes.” The word came out in the hush of a vow. “I will. If you let me.”

She nodded, then reached out, plucking his left hand from where it rested on his thigh and pressing it between both of hers. Luke pushed himself the rest of the way upright and scooted around, his knees bumping hers as he arranged himself to face her. His eyes fixed on her hands as she turned his over in one of her own and traced a pattern in his palm with her forefinger. His body tingled, like the first touch of delicate snowflakes on falling heating skin, everywhere.

Mara’s eyes lifted, locked on his as she repeated the pattern. Each time, the tingling sensation seemed to bore deeper into him. Skin, muscle, bone – until it latched somewhere in his chest, making his back bow, his mouth fall open in a rasping gasp for air. Mara hummed, and he _felt_ it in his ribs, a warm, smug satisfaction like the purr of a well-fed manka cat stretching in the sun.

“Mara – what- ? What did you do?”

“Bond.”

And _that_ tone was the happy, confident Mara Jade who challenged him – on Myrkr, at the Academy, on every mission they’d run together. The Mara he’d considered his in many ways long before his body had sought to claim hers. She leaned forward, peering at him with triumph.

“Hurt me, hurt you.” She lifted one shoulder in a haughty, casual shrug he knew intimately. “Keep.”

Delight spilled through him – hers, his own, he didn’t know or care – and he laughed. Bending forward he pulled her into his arms, hauled her gracelessly into his lap as he kissed her, eager and astonished and so _so_ desperate to touch her, taste her, _have_ her.

For the first time, Mara didn’t hesitate or resist. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she circled her hips, grinding her center against his stiff cock. He moaned, splaying his hands against the small of her back as she licked into his mouth.

There would time later to ask what kind of bond she’d made them, how she’d even known how. Now there was only sweetness and heat and Mara’s willing, needy body plunging them both into the final stage of her heat.

He’d meant to be gentle – promised her he’d do what he could. And he was, initially.

It was Mara who worked herself down onto his thick cock, her body welcoming the stretch and fullness of him, then rocking into motion and setting the pace. Mara who claimed his right hand, sucking hard at his middle and forefingers, her whimpers and whines becoming an unbroken stream of sound as she rode him wildly, chasing her own pleasure. Mara who laced the fingers of her right hand with his left and tugged them down between them, holding and moving them just where she needed. Luke watched, rapt, as his Omega tossed her head back and keened, her toes curling against his thighs as she came apart, just for him.

His. Omega.

He had to have her. Had to claim her, as she’d claimed him. To mark her, so no one would ever hurt her again. Luke folded forward, one arm across Mara’s back, bracing her against him as he bore them to the ground. He murmured her name against her skin, licking and sucking, filling his mouth with the honey and salt of her skin. Pressing her back into the blankets, he reached down, curved a hand under her knee and lifted it over his shoulder. Her breath caught and she arched her back as he gave an experimental thrust. Her cry wasn’t pain but desperate, demanding want, and he dropped his hands, pinning her hips as he buried himself inside her, fierce and relentless, his entire body trembling with it, consumed.

At the furthest edge of his control, Luke bent over his Omega, scraped his teeth across her collarbone in warning. He had to have her. Mara’s hand came up, gripped his hair. She pulled his head down and burrowed her face into his shoulder, permission and plea in one. Luke wrapped both arms around her, bracing them under her back and locking her against him as he thrust once more – twice – then, with a growl, closed his teeth around the delicate curve where her shoulder met her throat and emptied himself inside her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Extraction arrives, bringing an entirely new set of challenges. No one said being a good Alpha was easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't love the ending, but done is better than perfect. Thanks for indulging in this bizarreness with me. : )

Luke groaned into Mara’s hair and groped in the blankets.

Noise. Something was making noise. Foreign, unacceptable noise that needed to stop. His Omega was _sleeping_. They’d fucked enough for an entire colony of Endorian tumble bunnies after he’d claimed her, until they could barely move and her scent changed from intoxicating honey to the salt of their sweat, the lapse in pheromones and smoothing of her Force presence telling them both her heat was ending.

The comm. The noise was the comm. Kriff. Awareness pierced Luke’s foggy head and he thrust a hand out, calling the device to his palm. Mara would have said it was a frivolous use of the Force but, given the situation, he decided it could be fairly categorized as necessary.

“Skywalker.” Damn. His voice was rough, husky with sex and sleep and, if the pause on the other end of the line was any indication, their rescuers noticed.

“Heard you needed an evac.”

Wedge. Luke wasn’t sure if his friend crewing the rescue boat was a blessing or curse.

“Yeah. You, uh -,” Luke wormed his other arm free from under Mara, suppressing an affectionate snort when she grunted in protest, then burrowed deeper into the blankets. Dragging himself into a sitting position, he rested the hand not holding the comm on her hip, his thumb stroking the soft, warm, sticky skin there. “You triangulated where we are?”

“We’ve got you,” Antilles confirmed. “We’re dropping a team at your original set down site to try contact with the locals again and to retrieve your shuttle. Then we’ll be on our way over to you.” His tone grew serious. “Everything all right? There was a note in the orders about Jade having possibly been exposed to something.”

He had said that, hadn’t he? Before he knew. It felt like a lifetime ago.

“She’s all right,” he hedged. “She’ll need a run through a med bay, though.”

“The _Expedition_ is in orbit,” Wedge told him. “She can get checked out there. I’ll comm Karrde we won’t be dropping her off right away.”

“He’s here?” Luke’s eyes darted toward Mara and his hand tightened on her hip, fear warring with protectiveness inside him.

 

“Said the _Starry Ice_ was nearby. Thought he’d swing through, get the scoop on what happened right away. You know how he is with information.”

Luke knew how he was with Mara, too, not that either of them would admit to the attachment. “Right.”

He hadn’t expected to face choices like this so soon. Wasn’t prepared. He knew she’d want her own people to see to her, and that Karrde’s med droids would be equipped to offer her everything she needed… up to and including her medication if she wanted to go back on it.

But what would that mean for _them_? For their bond? For his plans of taking care of her? What if Karrde thought he’d hurt her and whisked her away into hiding before they could talk, work through the mess between them? The thought of losing her now, of going back to the way things had been and pretending this never happened – he couldn’t. He _couldn’t._ He wasn’t sure he’d survive.

_Can’t again._

Mara’s words on the ledge the day before came back to him and his chin dropped, his eyes falling shut. She’d had so few choices. He couldn’t take any more away from her, whatever the cost. _Time to prove you won’t leash her._

“See if you can get us clearance to take her straight to him, will you?” Every word was an effort. “She’ll be more comfortable than she would on the _Expedition_.”

He could all but hear his friend’s eyebrows go up, but all Wedge said was, “sure thing. Pack it up, buddy – we’ll be by to grab you soon.”

Luke thumbed the comm off. For a moment, he just sat, vividly aware of and dreading the trial by fire that awaited the instant they stepped out the cave onto the shuttle. Every fiber of his being wanted to just roll his Omega up in the blankets, carry her out of this and tuck her straight in the closest safe bunk he could find. To hoard her to himself until they’d worked out everything they hadn’t been able to touch while her heat was robbing her of words and choices.

But she wasn’t just an Omega. She was Mara, and he’d made her promises. And the first step to keeping them was getting her on that shuttle under her own power, with her dignity intact. Letting his breath out in a long, controlled sigh, Luke scraped up every ounce of willpower he possessed, leaned over, and pressed a loving kiss to her jaw.

“Mara? I need you to wake up, Sweetheart.”

        - -

“Master Skywalker.”

“Captain Karrde.”

“Mara has asked to see you. I told her I’d send you to meet her in the dining hall, as TwoBee insists she do nothing else before eating.”

_Thank the Force._ He’d been tracking her, surreptitiously, through their new bond since the minute he’d reluctantly handed her over to into Talon’s care hours ago. She’d been quiet, groggy and stiff, and every step she took out of the shuttle and into _Starry Ice_ – away from him – had been a knife in his gut.

He’d dodged Wedge’s questions and been as short as possible in his answers to the standard debrief questions he’d faced on the _Expedition_. He’d taken a quick run through the sani-steam and then dressed in another set of his standard blacks, helpfully retrieved with the shuttle the follow-up team had sent back.

Getting ferried back to the _Starry Ice_ hadn’t been terribly difficult, but getting to see Mara had been another story entirely. She’d still been in the med bay, a fact that worried him, and he’d been told politely, but in no uncertain terms, that she would remain there undisturbed until the 2-1B in charge of her said otherwise.

He’d soothed himself somewhat by looking up the most reliable medical and academic sources on Omega heat cycles and researching ship specs. He’d assembled a respectable list of things he’d need to take better care of her next time, and indulged just a little in imagining the giant bed and pile of velvety blankets he was going to acquire for them to nest in. He’d drafted a text comm to Han, too, asking if he’d teach him smuggler hand signals, determined that there be better workarounds next time aphasia robbed Mara of her words.

Now, he rose, pocketing his data pad.

“Thank you.” Luke headed purposefully for the door when Karrde’s voice stopped him.

“She’s demurred to renew her medication.”

His heart leapt. That had to be a good sign. Karrde’s obvious suspicion, on the other hand, was not. He turned back, lifting his chin. “That’s her choice to make.”

“Is it?”

It was a fair question, and if Luke hadn’t been so impatient to see Mara himself, _finally_ , he’d have been grateful for Karrde’s protection of her. “I want Mara to be safe,” he said, firmly. “And happy. I’ll do whatever I must to see that she is.”

  * -



It was an odd hour, and there was no one but Mara in the _Ice’s_ utilitarian dining hall when he entered. She wore a clean off-duty outfit, the high-collared navy tunic hiding the bite marks he’d left littered across her chest. There were shadows under her eyes, but she looked and felt calm and he was grateful for that.   

He was relieved, too, to see she had a platter generously heaped with food and a small jar of pirki nut butter in front of her. She’d chosen a table in the back corner and sat facing the door, her eyes lifting to meet his as he approached. 

He hesitated when he reached her, suddenly unsure. He wanted to wrap his arms around her, to lean down and kiss her, to drop onto the bench beside her and steal one the fried tubers on her plate. But, as before, what _he_ wanted mattered far less than making sure that he did not rob her of the choices that were rightfully hers. Even so, there were limits to what a man could take.

“Karrde said you didn’t renew your meds.”

Tension vibrated down the link between them, even as Mara slowly finished chewing and swallowed. Deliberately unhurried, she dabbed a napkin at her mouth, then set it down beside her plate.

“I was given to understand,” she said evenly, enunciating every word, “that I wouldn’t need them.” She held his gaze, and Luke felt as if the entire galaxy held its breath with him. “My Alpha promised to keep me, which would mean that future heats are no longer a threat to my wellbeing.”

For half a second, Luke teetered on his feet, delirious relief rocking him. Then he was around the table, one hand braced on its plastisteel surface, the other cupping Mara’s face as he kissed her - happily,  desperately.

“I _will_. I am – oh, Sweetheart.”

She laughed, a short, bemused bark that made him grin. “Sit down - before you fall and take me with you.” She fisted a hand in his tunic and pulled him down beside her. “And eat something. I’m starving, and you don’t’ feel any better.”

“Mmm.” He did steal one of her tubers now, popping it into his mouth and sighing contentedly at the kick of spice on his tongue. “I’m glad you found pirki nut butter,” he said, swallowing.

“I have a craving,” she frowned, irritated and poked at it with her spoon. Her eyes darted to his. “I’m not pregnant – TwoBee checked.”

“Magnesium,” he informed her, spearing another tuber with the fork he’d confiscated. “Heat burns through it at an abnormally high rate – you need to replenish your body’s supply.”

She narrowed her eyes at him as she sucked the butter off her spoon. “Someone has been doing research.”

“I told you,” he reminded her seriously. “A good Alpha takes care of his mate. Next time,” he shook his head. “Next time I’ll know what I’m doing. Everything will be different. You’ll see.”

Her lips quirked, and her sense slid along his suggestively. “Maybe not _everything_ ,” she shot him a sideways glance. “That thing you did with your tongue...that could happen again.”

Luke laughed and stole another kiss, softer and more indulgent this time. “Duly noted.”

Apprehension shivered along the bond.

“Luke – I meant what I said, too.” She poked at the nut butter again, frowning. “About things not being clean. I’m not going to give up what I do -.”

“I’m not asking you to.” He slid one arm around her, nuzzling his face into her neck.  “I know it won’t be easy, making this -,” he fumbled a gestured between them, “ _being mates_ – work. But we can. And I want to.”

She turned her head, her lips finding his as the bond warmed again, the kiss insistent and _happy_. “I do to.” She pushed him away. “After food. Seriously, I’m _starving_.”

“Later,” he agreed, grinning and digging into another bite of her plate himself. “First, we’re going to eat and then you’re going to tell me how you made this bond.” He waved at his head. “It’s… I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Just because I’m your Omega doesn’t mean I’m going to start being compliant, Skywalker,” she informed him, archly.

“I don’t _have_ to do the tongue thing again, you know.”

“You are a womp rat.” She sniffed, eyes bright with mirth even as her tone drifted toward a crisp Coruscanti-accented drawl rife with disdain. “Threatening to withhold basic physical needs from your Omega for selfish gain! Terrible.”

He snorted. “Is _that_ how this is going to work?”

She shrugged, catching his hand and redirecting the fork he held to her mouth, winking as she plucked the spiced morsel off the end herself. “Probably. We’ll figure out something.”

They would, he was sure. Later. For now, Luke blissfully let himself sink into the warmth of Mara’s presence across their bond, the bite of pepper on this tongue, and the satisfaction of knowing his Omega was safe and well and eating. Everything else could wait.


End file.
